That Fleeting Thing Called A Dream
by MadameStarheart
Summary: It all started as an innocent summer vacation...but when Marie Shelli Johannesen starts dreaming about mermen that oddly resemble Hetalia characters, a life-changing and wacky adventure ensues. AU. Rated T for violence and future character deaths. Human names used.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello again. You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you? Well, I hope not: I wrote a new story! Originally, this wasn't going to go up, but I thought it worthwhile to share it with the world and get some feedback. Enjoy!**

It is a fleeting thing, a dream. Some are remembered, others forgotten. They may come nightly, or not at all. They show us our greatest desires, or our worst nightmares. The things going on in our lives have a say in what we dream about as well. And now, a rare few know how to take full control of their dreams, manipulating every single thing that happens. But what if one dreamed that they were somewhere and were then taken there? To another town…another country…another universe, perhaps?

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Anyone would have said it was a messy room. There were multiple papers and books strewn about, and a glass of water was on the night stand. But there was a reason. For tonight, Marie Shelli Johannesen was going to lucid dream. Being one who rarely has dreams, she was not confident in her abilities. She rarely ever had dreams while she was asleep; many fantasies ran wild in her head during the day, but it wasn't the same. Wasn't like the exhilaration and randomness of a night dream.

The girl sat on her bed and did exactly as the sources had told her: she eased back and started meditating, counting each of her breaths slowly. She focused all her awareness on the one spot where her head touched the pillow, and imagined herself sinking down slowly until she was on the verge of sleep. And then, the part that seemed the hardest: shifting her awareness out of her body, while holding on as tightly as possible. How on earth was that supposed to work? Quieting her inner voice was challenging enough. It was becoming a struggle to even stay put. _Forget it, _She thought._ I never should have tried if it's going to be this hard. _Opening her eyes in defeat, she looked over at her nightstand. Only there was one problem: _the nightstand wasn't there._ Neither was her room, or her bed. Instead, there was a beach spread around her, waves casually foaming against the shore, moon high in the sky. She got up and looked out over the horizon, and saw a rather large rock jutting out of the otherwise unbroken sea.

"Am I…dreaming?" she absentmindedly mumbled to herself. A low-pitched laugh then echoed around her, and a figure slowly sat up on the rock. Marie had never noticed the figure; it was lying down before and had looked like part of the rock itself. At first glance, it was obviously a man.

Looking at the strange man, she noticed something familiar…the long arms covered in lean muscle… the dusty blonde hair… the obvious slouch to the way he sat looking up at the moon…and she would know that cowlick anywhere.

"America? Is that you?" Marie dared to ask, aware of how silly it sounded. How could a character from an anime show up in her lucid dream, or whatever was happening to her?

"Umm…sorry dudette, I don't know anyone named A-mer-i-ca." the man said, his tongue moving awkwardly over the unfamiliar word. _His voice is the same, too,_ thought Marie, utterly shocked. _But he just said he had no idea who I was talking about_.

"Anyways, I'm Alfred." The man on the rock continued. He then turned around, showing Marie his full self. This confused her even more; he was a replica of her favorite Hetalia character down to the very last detail, except for the fact that he was devoid of any glasses. Marie then let a slight blush show on her face as she noticed that he was shirtless. Feeling a need to restrain herself, she made herself look away from his face; anything to escape those brilliant blue eyes that were only intensified by the lack of anything on the face they belonged to. And then she noticed: the man before her had no legs. In place of the aforementioned body part was instead a glimmering, deep blue tail.

"What is it? What's wrong?" the man (or, merman, I suppose) Alfred questioned. "Wait a minute…holy smokes, you're human!" he continued, rearing back fiercely from the girl, whose eyes were big as saucers. "Ummm…this was a dream. You never saw me. And there definitely aren't any merpeople in the ocean around here! I mean, that'd be crazy!" As he talked, he turned around, trying to hide his tail, and doing a bad job of it, seeing as Marie had already completely seen him. _He's still as oblivious as ever._ Marie thought, smiling. Yet the hilarious scene did not overcome the fact that she had just seen what definitely looked like a merman, and not only that, one that looked like America. _They even have the same name…Alfred…_

"Wait a minute, come back!" Marie found herself yelling as Alfred turned tail (literally) and dove back into the water. Unfortunately, he did not listen to her and was soon gone under the waves. Suddenly, the beach around her started fading away into darkness, and Marie was pushed back by some strange force as the world around her disappeared.

**You like, no? You will review, no? I should stop typing like this, no?**

**Please review with love. New chapters coming soon!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi! You came back! Here it is. Chapter 2. Forgot to say this last time, I don't own Hetalia.**

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The girl woke up on her bed, in the same dirty room, with the same books and papers, a glass of water beside her. She got up, shocked, confused, and more than a little scared. _It was only a dream. It was only a dream…_ she repeated to herself until the fear stopped. Once she had calmed down, she looked around at the familiar, bland walls of her room. Going to a first-rate girls' academy had its perks, one of them being that she could stay there over the long summer months. It wasn't like she had any place to go anymore: her parents were long gone.

"Marie!" someone called from the doorway.

"Leila? That you?" Marie answered.

"Oh, come on! Who else would it be?! Or were you up all night watching some anime and don't know left from right anymore?" Leila jokingly called as she walked in. Leila was Marie's closest friend, but Marie certainly didn't appreciate her constant bashing of Japanese media and art, two things she liked very much. "Anyways, if you're not doing anything, which it looks like you're not, some of the girls who stayed are heading down to the beach right now, and I wanted to ask you."

"Sure. What else would I do?" Marie asked, only half-joking.

"Well, if you don't come now, you're going to miss it! Come on!" Leila then violently dragged Marie out of her room, barely giving her enough time to get a towel and hat before they were off to the beach.

As Marie was taken down to the coastline, she encountered a surreal sense of déjà vu. Turning away any thoughts of mermen and Hetalia look-alikes, she used her mental strength to focus on what was just in front of her. Just then, it seemed Leila was done torturing her arm and set her down on the golden sand of the beach. It had only been a quarter mile from their school anyways.

"Hey guys!" someone called from the edge of the sea. "Glad you could make it!" All the girls turned their heads at the announcement and greeted the newcomers, each in their own way. At first, Marie was glad to be back with people she knew, safe and happy. But, taking a closer look around the beach, it seemed frighteningly familiar…

_It was the same as in her dream._

Every detail was achingly familiar: the smooth, unbroken shore, the u-shaped coast, and the rock that she had seen Alfred sit on were all in exactly the same place. After the initial shock, a moment of thought was spent on how she did not make that connection while in her dream.

"Marie? You ok?" a girl next to her asked timidly. She had walked up to the frozen-in-place Marie while she wasn't looking, and her appearance perfectly served to scare the mind out of the latter. Marie recognized her as Christy, a girl who rarely spoke, who had olive skin, dark hair and deep, penetrating brown eyes. _This is bad,_ thought our distraught heroine. _If Christy said something about it, it must have been insanely obvious. _

"I'm fine." Marie said as powerfully as she could, then got up and walked over to the multiple towels laid out on the sand. Unfortunately, since she hadn't had the time to get any sunscreen before Leila had dragged her out, Marie had to sit under an umbrella because she burned like bacon in a pan. Unfortunately, though, since she could not ease her mind by playing in the water like the others, she was forced to stare at the scenery that seemed all too familiar.

After 20 minutes of equal parts awe and boredom, Marie called out "I think I've had enough of the beach today. I'm going home, alright?" A few goodbyes were issued, and Marie made a short walk back to the academy, surprised at how tired she felt.

After a very uneventful walk, Marie headed back into her room, the confusion of the beach nearly gone, and the tired feeling even worse. Her limbs were heavy, her eyes drooping, and she didn't feel as if she could go on, even thought she had barely done anything that day. Confused and exhausted, she laid out on her bed and slowly passed into sleep.

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**Did I write this? Yes. Was it written well? I don't think so. Don't worry if it's been boring, stuff will go down in the next chapter, that I'm sure of. **

**~Please review with love~**


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